The Army has been looking beyond armor to augment the defense of Abrams tanks and other armored vehicles with a next-generation Active Protection System in response to the emergence of more potent weapons without sacrificing speed and weight.

"Today, we need to adapt differently to threats, not just by adding more armor," Col. Kevin Vanyo, program manager for Emerging Capabilities at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development, and Engineering Center, told the Army News Service, adding that the Abrams is already so heavy many bridges cannot support it.

Vanyo said his team was working on both "hard kill" APS, which uses physical countermeasures, and "soft kill" APS, which uses countermeasures like electromagnetic signals to interfere with incoming weapons. Both systems would be part of the Modular Active Protection System, which is "a framework for a modular, open-systems architecture" that will allow an active-protection system to function once installed, he said.

The Army is considering three versions of MAPS, Vanyo told the Army News Service. Israeli-made Trophy APS on Abrams tanks, U.S.-made Iron Curtain APS on Stryker combat vehicles, and Iron Fist APS, also made by an Israeli company, on Bradley fighting vehicles.

Decisions about fielding the latter two systems will be made in early 2018, but the Army hopes to field the Trophy APS system by 2020, Vanyo said.

The Trophy system uses fire-control radars and four mounted antennas giving 360-degree coverage to detect incoming projectiles. Once they're picked up, computers determine firing angles and activate two rotating launchers mounted on the sides of the vehicle that fire a shotgun-like blast. The Trophy system's estimated cost is $350,000 to $500,000 for each tank.

Personnel at the Army Test and Evaluation Command's Alabama test center facility in Redstone Arsenal are working on an APS and other systems that can be deployed as part of MAPS, ATEC chief Maj. Gen. John Charlton told Army News Service. A main concern was figuring out if signals produced by an APS would interfere with the Army vehicle or be detectable by enemy sensors.

The Army has been evaluating APS for some time. It leased several Trophy systems in spring 2016, working with the Marine Corps to test them. It has also purchased some systems for testing.

"The one that is farthest along in terms of installing it is ... Trophy on Abrams," Lt. Gen. John Murray, Army deputy chief of staff, told Scout Warrior this summer. "We're getting some pretty ... good results. It adds to the protection level of the tank."

Army Maj. Gen. David Bassett, the Army's program executive officer for ground combat systems, said in mid-August that the Army was "very close to a decision on [installing] the Trophy system."

"We're looking to make those decisions rapidly so that we can spend money in the next Fiscal Year," Bassett said, adding that he foresaw "a brigade's worth of capability of Trophy on the Abrams." The 2018 fiscal year began in October.

Active-protection systems are already part of other countries' arsenals. Israeli and Russian tanks both use the Trophy APS.

At least one country, Norway, has publicly discussed ways to counter Russian APS use — talk that appeared to break "a taboo among Western military officials and defense industries," retired Brig. Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote earlier this year.

Even as militaries adopt active-protection systems to catch up with peers and rivals, there is reportedly a counter to APS already out there.

The most recent variant of the Russian-made RPG rocket launcher, the RPG-30, unveiled in 2008, has a 105 mm tandem high explosive anti-tank round and features a second, smaller-caliber projectile meant to act as an "agent provocateur" for active-protection systems, a Russian arms maker said in late 2015.

In this May 28, 2019 file photo, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader, second left, arrives with other members of the Taliban delegation for talks in Moscow, Russia. (Associated Press/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Taliban have sent a delegation to Russia to discuss prospects for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan following the collapse of talks with the United States this month, officials from the insurgent group said.

The move, days after President Donald Trump canceled a planned meeting with Taliban leaders at his Camp David retreat, came as the movement looks to bolster regional support, with visits also planned for China, Iran and Central Asian states.

Per his final demands, Joe Heller was laid in his casket Thursday in a T-shirt featuring the Disney dwarf Grumpy and the middle finger of his right hand extended. He also told his daughters to make sure and place a remote control fart machine in the coffin with him.

Laced with bawdy humor, the irreverent but loving obit captured Heller's highly inappropriate nature and his golden heart, friends who filled the fire station for a celebration of his life on Thursday evening said.

A 19-year-old man who planned a July mass shooting at a West Lubbock hotel that was thwarted by his grandmother was upset that he was considered "defective" by the military when he was discharged for his mental illness, according to court records.

William Patrick Williams faces federal charges for reportedly lying on an application to buy the semiautomatic rifle he planned to use in a shooting, according to a federal indictment filed Aug. 14.

He is charged with a federal felony count of making a false material statement during the purchase of a firearm on July 11, a day before he planned to lure people out of a hotel and shoot them. The charge carries a punishment of up to five years in prison.

A photograph circulated by the U.S. State Department's Twitter account to announce a $1 million USD reward for al Qaeda key leader Hamza bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, is seen March 1, 2019. (State Department via Reuters)

Reuters) - Hamza bin Laden, a son of slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and himself a notable figure in the militant group, was killed in a U.S. counter-terrorism operation, the White House said on Saturday.